Trump Warns Turkey over Detained Pastor

Carrie Elliott

But a few hours later US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin assured president Donald Trump at a cabinet meeting that sanctions were ready to be put in place if US pastor Andrew Brunson, who is on house arrest in Turkey over terrorism charges, is not released. "We have more that we're planning to do if they don't release him quickly".

The US present had harsh words for Turkish officials during the cabinet session, saying, "They have not proven to be a good friend". They came out. They want to hold our wonderful pastor.

He said: "I have just authorised a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminium with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downwards against our very strong Dollar!" The crisis has been precipitated by investor alarm about President Tayyip Erdogan's influence over monetary policy.

Analysts also said the political cost of the investment remained to be seen, given that Qatar is also a USA ally and dependent on Washington for both military and political protection.

The lira lost strength after Mnuchin's remarks.

Yet, the crisis that we face in American-Turkish relations goes well beyond the plight of the pastor.

The unnamed source added that they had agreed that their finance ministers - Berat Albayrak and Bruno Le Maire - would meet "as soon as possible", and that Mr Macron had told Mr Erdogan that Turkey's economic stability was "important" for France.

The Turkish lira continued to retreat from its historic low against the dollar on Thursday after Qatar announced a $15 billion funding package for Turkey's wobbling economy.

Americans with a bit of common sense see that what is being done to Turkey is not only penalizing the Turkish people and plunging relations into a state of collapse, but it is also hurting global American security interests as well as the USA economy.

Turkey has the highest foreign exchange-denominated debt among emerging markets, Societe Generale said in its note on Friday, estimating its short-term external debt at $180 billion and total external debt at $460 billion.

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